2.5 Razors

The Lost Symbol – As Above, So Below

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: The Lost Symbol – As Above, So Below
  • IMDb: link

The Lost Symbol - As Above, So Below

Adapted from Dan Brown’s 2009 novel of the same name, the opening episode of The Lost Symbol might be the most Dan Brown thing ever captured on film. As seen in The Da Vinci Code, Angels & Demons, and Inferno, Professor Robert Langdon (played here by Ashley Zukerman) is pulled into a bizarre mystery where his knowledge of history, symbology, art, cryptography, and obscure religious trivia will be put to the test against a secret cult (what else) determined to find secrets buried hundreds of years ago. The first episode focuses on Langdon being lured to Washington, D.C. to discover his mentor Peter Solomon (Eddie Izzard) has been kidnapped by a shadowy conspiracy hoping to force Langdon into discovering the location of their prize.

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Lady Bloodfight

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Lady Bloodfight
  • IMDb: link

Lady Bloodfight movie reviewThrowback Tuesday takes us back to to 2016 and an all-female martial arts tournament called the Kumite. The script by Bey Logan and Judd Bloch is more confusing than it needs to be with unnecessary subplots getting the way of what should be a straightforward fight film. The movie opens with two competitors fighting to a draw in the tournament, and each given the opportunity to train a fighter for the next Kumite. Each take their sweet time, finding a suitable student at the last minute.

The tranquil Shu (Muriel Hofmann) chooses the unlikely American Jane (Amy Johnston) whose sudden trip to Japan is more about learning about father’s participation years ago (when it wasn’t an all-female tournament?) than running away from the brutal beating she gives would-be gang rapists offering a particularly vulgar Southern hospitality half a world away. The vengeful Wai (Kathy Wu) chooses street thief Ling (Jenny Wu) with a mean streak that matches her own (in yet another twisty subplot). Despite the talented field, and the tampering of an unscrupulous gambler, there’s never a doubt who will settle the feud in the tournament’s final match.

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Vacation Friends

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Vacation Friends
  • IMDb: link

Vacation Friends movie reviewVacation Friends offers your usual odd couple pairing when Marcus (Lil Rel Howery) and Emily (Yvonne Orji) meet the outrageous Ron (John Cena) and Kyla (Meredith Hagner) through a series of misadventures while on vacation in Mexico. Wackiness ensues. After having a far crazier vacation than they had planned, Emily and Marcus leave Mexico with no plans to ever see the other couple again until they show up months later uninvited at their wedding looking for their “best friends.”

Filled with equal amounts of laughs and groans, and just enough charm to keep you watching, the wacky Vacation Friends offers a nice (if obvious) message about how sometimes the people you least expect can become your closest friends (and not just a fun vacation story). Most of the movie features Marcus and/or Emily freaking out by what the other couple has done next only to realize their embarrassment over Ron and Kyla is blinding them to what the pair bring to their lives (aside from the chaos) and that the couples are better when they are in each other’s lives. It’s not something I’d recommend, but the right audience may have fun with Vacation Friends.

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Guilty Pleasure – Tekken

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Tekken
  • IMDb: link

Tekken movie reviewThrowback Tuesday takes us back to 2009’s adaptation of the Tekken video game franchise. Set in a dystopian 2039, the film follows Jin Kazama (Jonathan Patrick Foo) enter the Iron Fist tournament after the death of his mother (Tamlyn Tomita) where he’ll face off against the likes of Marshall Law (Cung Le), Miguel Caballero Rojo (Roger Huerta), Yoshimitsu (Gary Ray Stearns), and Bryan Fury (Gary Daniels) while hoping to kill the man he blames for his mother’s death Heihachi Mishima (Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa).

Tekken is a throwaway action flick that offers some fun while it focuses on the tournament and Jin’s journey. Sure, it gets a bit lost when Kazuya Mishima (Ian Anthony Dale) begins screwing with the tournament in order to kill Jin before he has a chance to win, revealing the truth about Jin’s parentage in the process, but there’s plenty of dumb fun to go around and we get Kelly Overton looking as good as humanly possible as the flirtatious Christie Monteiro, along with Candîce Hillebrand and Marian Zapico as the Williams sisters and Mircea Monroe as Jin’s girlfriend.

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Rutherford Falls – Pilot

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: Rutherford Falls – Pilot
  • IMDb: link

Rutherford Falls - Pilot television review

The “Pilot” episode of Rutherford Falls introduces us to the sleepy town of Rutherford Falls which won’t remain sleepy for much longer. Our two main characters are Nathan Rutherford (Ed Helms), descendant of the town’s founder and proud owner of its museum, and Reagan Wells (Jana Schmieding), a member of the Minishonka Nation, Nathan’s best-friend, and a woman struggling to get the funding to see her people’s heritage get honored and celebrated in the community. The event that shakes up things in the town is the Mayor’s (Dana L. Wilson) decision to move the statue of the town’s founder which sends Nathan over the edge (leading to a complete meltdown in front of the town). The episode is a fine sitcom pilot, successfully introducing the main characters, teasing Nathan having to reconsider long-held beliefs and compromise, and Reagan becoming more self-assured, while the town’s drama begins to be noticed by the larger world.

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